Study links blood types to pancreatic cancer risk

People with type O blood have a much lower risk for pancreatic cancer, while those with type B blood have the worst risk. Compared to people with type O, those with blood type A have a 32 percent higher risk of pancreatic cancer, those with type AB have a 51 percent higher risk and those with type B have a 72 percent higher risk, the researchers found. The findings, appearing in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, were based on 107,503 men and women whose health has been tracked since the 1970s and 1980s. The findings are not likely to have immediate value for doctors and patients dealing with the disease, but could play a role in the future in developing useful screening methods, said Dr. Brian Wolpin of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and Harvard Medical School, who led the study. "There are very few known genetic risk factors for pancreatic cancer. And what this study shows is that blood type, which is defined by a gene on your ninth chromosome, appears to be associated with risk of developing this disease," Wolpin said.

Bonnie - in my clinical experience, blood type B's do poorly when consuming corn products in large amounts. It could be possible that continual corn consumption epigenetically triggers DNA to act adversely.